six, your post made me realize a few things, so I have to ask a few questions and bear with me on this. Others can read this and chew on it too as food for thought ?
Was your post influenced by and composed based upon any of the links or readings from posts # 64-66 of this thread ? Because if so, that would refute some of what others have been telling me as their truth(s) and thus their assertions of my untrue statements in the past couple of days or so (you can see the date and time stamps of the posts):
You said:
As I understand it, the position of the valve stem hole is always positioned directly across from the weld/seam. Because there is more material at the seam, due to pins and/or welds, this allows the wheel to be better balanced due to the additional mass of the valve stem when the tube and tire are installed.
This was said in post # 72 in this thread linked below before it was closed on the same subject:
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...Masi-%29/page3
Manufacturers do not "balance" bicycle wheels, they simply make them as round and uniform as possible.
This is how I'm interpreting your post, that a manufacturer has intentionally oriented the seam & weld to be opposite the valve stem hole to better balance the rim that perhaps accrues to the entire wheel ? Post # 72 of that thread indicates manufacturers don't do this ? I maintain that thru R&D, wheelset manufacturers have improved materials and processes (post # 65 of page 3 of that thread linked above).
I mean these manufacturers spend millions refining thru R&D the materials and processes to build a better bike at every price point ?
Maybe, a manufacturer or few has gotten good enough to do this over the past 30 years and it's a matter of QC really passing or failing a weld/seam, perhaps maybe a few slip by because of human error ?
Now, I'll move on to a psychophysic concept known as a "jnd", rather than repost quotes from it, I'll let anyone read it for what it is and make their own assessment whether it's real/true or not:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-noticeable_difference
I hear terms like "placebo effect" and "quality of ride" being thrown out. And that works for their points, perhaps now some of that may even work for my points ? At this point, I certainly want to know what anyone's perception or definition of "quality of ride" is. Because a "jnd" is really difficult to get a handle on, but it's very real and does exist from many other's perspectives that have argued in favor of the concept. For example, let's take when a cold front moves in, can we all feel a drop in humidity and temperature ? Do we all have the same threshold of sensory perception to detect it at the very same exact moment ? If others aren't aware of the jnd or don't even acknowledge they exist, when does the "quality of ride" ever really improve ? And that's another thing, even if I posted this immediate moment that I felt that improvement in "quality of ride", would anyone that has already made up their mind (as I have been accused of and explained away as placebo effect), would anyone in the pack mentality even believe it ? You at least leave some opening in your post with the words "Not Likely", but "not likely", still leaves probability that there is a possibility. That's the futility of where this discussion has escalated to, that nobody would believe me if I said it ? I'd still have skeptics. I'm fine with it though, because these concepts actually mean that they can't refute or disprove beyond a shadow of a doubt their contentions. But it's more likely that what I suggest is actually true. By and large "Quality of Ride" is very much real and like "threshold of pain", only the nerve endings in anyone's body elicit a stimulus to the brain that equates to pleasure, the quality of ride perhaps by their definition. Can those sensory perceptions of touch and feel even be accurately measured ?